An Answer
by Arashi Naoki
Summary: Ichigo walks along a beach that even he could not remember its name, but he will never forget what he had found there.


**An Answer**

**Disclaimer: Bleach by Tite Kubo**

**Pairing: Ichigo-Rukia**

**Genre: Romace**

**Rated: T**

**_Warning: IchiRuki, love and taboo in a different way._**

**_Song To Be Played: Angels Brought Me Here-Guy Sebastian_**

Ichigo walks along the beach where he first met her. It was spring, 15 years ago.

The soles of his feet feels the brush of soft sand, reminding him of a touch he always long for since then, 15 years ago.

He turns his head toward the sun that is being set to its haven, diverting his senses on the memory that can never be devoured by the time.

-15 Years Ago-

Kurosaki Ichigo, 44 years, Cardiologist, 1 Wife, 2 Children.

Anyway, I'm not here to carry those statuses. For this time, after 19 years of marriage, I want to take a leave of all my routine. As a cardiologist, a husband, and as a father. It's my vacation, in a place that is unusual to be visited at this time.

On a beach, and this is spring.

While people are enjoying the beauty of the cherry blossom in some other places, I sit alone on the beach. Let it be, I want to enjoy this solitude.

I lay back on the sand, not knowing what makes me dare to take time off just to lay on a sandy beach, enjoying the last moments of the sun today, then tomorrow go home again.

"Sir, are you okay?" suddenly a voice wakes me from the comfort of lying on this white sand beaches.

"Ah," it's a woman. I thought it was a man a moment ago, the voice is somehow, well…heavy.  
>"It's okay, miss. I was just laying there," I then wakes up. Which sane old man would continue to lie when there is an stranger girl next to him.<p>

"Ah, sorry. I thought you were... err. It is not look like you were ..." she thinks for a moment, "sunbathing."

"I'm not sunbathing, Kid. I was lying," I reiterate my statement earlier.

"Oh, I see. May I sit? In fact, you're on my favorite spot," she points at me, maybe that is exactly where I sit on.

Jeez, young people today. Do not they know manners? Does she think this place belongs to her grandmother who then pass it on to her?

"Ah, why not?" I shift a bit. Surprised? I also surprised by my actions. It makes me look like a Lolita who tried to flirt to a girl who may be less than half my age.

Se smiles and sat down next to me. Only a few inches from me.

"What brings you here, sir? You are not like the residents since I've never seen you before. Are you new?" she puts her chin on her knee.

"I was just ... enjoying my day off," again, silence fills the space between us. I like being alone, but this is a different thing. Not alone that is lonely, but loneliness which is a fully-filled. Oh my, I digress again. It must be because my work-hours that are too numerous and dense. Oh, I believe accompanying my wife and children is also a job instead? Job as a husband and a father.

"You come here often, Miss ..."

"Rukia, Kuchiki Rukia. Call me Rukia, don't be too formal. This is your time-off, isn't it?" she shifts her gaze from the shore toward me.

I noticed something in her eyes.

The eyes. The sparkle that radiates from the eyes, it looks like something familiar.

"Ah, well. Rukia. Call me Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki, and do not try to ask anything related to my job," I begin to carry on a conversation that led to a level of intimacy like we were old friends who had just met after a year- long years ago.

"Do you think I'll ask you things like that?" she glances at me, snorts.

I shrug my shoulders, "Who knows?"

"So, you're a resident?" I continue to talk, "Tell me about some interesting things here."

"Hmm," she glanced upward, as if thinking of something, still hugging her knees.

"This beach during the spring," she says, "is the most interesting thing to me," humming waves fill the pause in the sentence, "May I call you Ichigo?" she asked as she looked at me quickly.

"Of course. As long as my wife and daughter don't find it," I'm starting to be excited. Now our eyes met. Actually meet. Diving and exploring each other's.

She wrinkles her brow, "So what if they know?"

"My dignity will fall."

"Then why did you let me?"

"Well, let's just say we are old friends, Rukia," she, again, leans her chin on her little knees.

"All right. Look, this beach on spring is the most interesting thing here. You see, it's quiet here. I find it's cozy to be with the wind. Only the sun, the birds and the waves that accompany you," one of her hands grabs the sand between us. Playing it like a baker who was going to choose flour for bread.

"Your heart and soul will be soothed by the beat of the sea. Done," he raised his head, looking out to sea.

"You want to come in literature majors in university, huh?"

My question is answered briefly by her, "I am in business major. Second year."

Eh? Second year? This tiny?

We sink back into silence. I follow the direction of her gaze. The sunlight reflected by huge mirrors the handmade of the All-powerful creator.

The wave tunes that flirt with each other, the birds which are seducing each other and greet each other, the wind that interwoven into a tunable coherent. She's right, my whole body and my soul is being indulged by the pulse of the sea.

"Hey, Ichigo. How do you know this place?" she asks in a sudden.

"Following the road signs," I sense she turns her head toward me. I sigh. "My destination is not planned. Once at the junction with beach signpost, I immediately turned."

"You..." she pauses, "Do not you have a purpose in life, stupid, or what?"

One of my eyebrow raised. This kid makes me angry.

"Heh, isn't that impolite to say that in front of an elder?"

"What is 'Polite'? Hiding all our thoughts from an older person? Saving a wide range of questions that may not be answered without being asked?"

"It's not like that, Rukia," I touch her head. Maybe it's my fatherly instinct, "Sometimes the choice of words that must be chosen correctly when talking to older people."

"Hey, Ichigo," she doesn't move from her position. At first I thought she would get rid of my hand, but she doesn't.

"Hmm?" my hand is still on top of her head.

"Do you believe in a coincidence?" she adjust her sitting position. I don't know why but my hand is on her shoulder now.

"No," this time the distance between us narrowed.

"Same," our clothes intersect, my shirt and her dress.

"Same?" our views are mapped onto a same point. A crab walked sideways toward a direction. It can be whether west or east, north or south. All I know now, I feel a tenderness that I had never felt. A feeling that is always there in my dreams. My beautiful dreams.

"It's same with me uncle," shoulder lean on my ribs, and I felt a perfection. Fullness. Something has gone from me, as if it is returning to me.

"Since when did you start calling me uncle?" I turn, instead, look down at her.

"Just now," she looked up. Our eyes met again. The eyes, seem to be an endless cave, calling out my curiosity, _**What is it there in the end?**_

Her eyes slowly closed, that amethyst was slowly faded, my eyes followed her. I followed the amethyst, and our lips met.

This is not a fatherly instinct. No.

Our lips, together, embrace and melt. The warmth, the softness of this. There is nothing strange. Every breath is bound, every beat is stitched into a place for my heart and the rest of my life. I miss her.

"You do not believe in coincidence, Ichigo?" I still close my eyes. Our foreheads meet.

"No," I opened my eyes slowly, her eyes still closed.

"Then what is this?" she touched my arm, slowly to my hand and my fingers on her cheeks.

"Maybe this is just an answer, Rukia. An answer to an unspoken prayer. An answer of prayer without words ... Rukia."

That afternoon the sun sets, leaving the two silhouettes lost in an answer. The answer to prayer that they never say. A prayer of love.

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Fin

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A / N:

Sucks. My grammar…-.-

It's my firs English fic and I'm not too much…fond of it.

Hello, I'm Arashi Naoki, could be called Arashi, or Naoki to be more familiar.

This is the English version of my first fic and is reposted due to grammatical error and such (thanks to piginthesky for review :* ). Originally written in Bahasa. Eh, I think it's enough, but I still wanna tell you guys…

Review and PM are welcomed for input and correction * smile *.

Warmest regards,

Naoki Arashi.


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